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He got a kidney, she got a new last name: Couple weds three years after groom received life-saving organ donation from bride who was a 'friend of a friend'
By ASHLEY COLLMAN PUBLISHED: 01:20 GMT, 25 October 2013 | UPDATED: 01:21 GMT, 25 October 2013
A lot of married couples talk about being 'saved' by each other, but newlyweds Kyle Froelich and Chelsea Clair mean it literally. If Kyle had never met Chelsea there's a good chance he wouldn't be alive today since she provided a much-needed kidney transplant when his had almost completely stopped working. The two were married this past October 12, four years after they first met and three years after that life-saving organ donation.
Commitment: Kyle Froelich married Chelsea Clair in a ceremony earlier this month. The couple met four years ago and on the day they met, Chelsea offered to donate her kidney to the ailing Kyle
In an interview with the Indianapolis Star, the couple talked about the day they met - September 12, 2009.At the time Kyle was in his last year of high school in Brownsburg, Indiana, and what doctor's believed was his last year of life. He met Chelsea at a car show, when the 22-year-old friend of a friend was going through a divorce. After hanging out with Kyle that day, Chelsea offered him her kidney as they were parting. He didn't think much of it though. Many people had offered him a kidney in the past and he learned not to get his hopes up. Chelsea was different though. She followed through and got tested and it turned out that the two were 'an almost perfect match'.
But it wasn't an easy road to donation. After watching a video of a kidney operation, Chelsea's mother told her not to do it and that caused the mother and daughter to become distant. 'I felt like I had nobody,' Chelsea said. The two went into surgery six months after first meeting, and Kyle drove Chelsea to Indiana University hospital that day. Once at the hospital, Chelsea started to panic. She was going to be the first one operated on, and before being wheeled away into the OR, she grabbed onto Kyle and said 'Please don't let go'.
Meant to be: The kidney donation was a success as the two were a near perfect match, medically and, eventually, romantically
Despite Chelsea's fears, the operation was a success and Kyle's body accepted the new kidney immediately. When they both awoke after the procedure, their first words were about each other. 'Is Kyle OK?' Chelsea asked. 'How's Chelsea?' Kyle said. While recovering the two had to be kept separate so Kyle wouldn't get an infection but he kept asking the nurses to wheel him past Chelsea so he could wave into her room. It wasn't until after the donation that the two became an item. 'There's a bond that no one else, unless they've done it, can know. She's my best friend,' Kyle said.
In addition to other milestones of their relationship, the two now celebrate the anniversary of the kidney transplant, a day they call 'Sparkypalooza' (they named the kidney Sparky). It's become a sort-of inside joke between the two. Chelsea often threatens to take back the kidney. 'He's carrying around my kidney. I have to make sure he takes of that,' Chelsea said.Three years after Chelsea gave Kyle her kidney, the two exchanged vows at the Danville Conservation Club.
At their wedding ceremony on October 12, the couple opted out of the traditional vows of 'in sickness and in health' and wrote something meaningful to them: 'I offer you my hand, my heart and my soul, as I know they will be safe with you.'
A lot of married couples talk about being 'saved' by each other, but newlyweds Kyle Froelich and Chelsea Clair mean it literally. If Kyle had never met Chelsea there's a good chance he wouldn't be alive today since she provided a much-needed kidney transplant when his had almost completely stopped working. The two were married this past October 12, four years after they first met and three years after that life-saving organ donation.
Commitment: Kyle Froelich married Chelsea Clair in a ceremony earlier this month. The couple met four years ago and on the day they met, Chelsea offered to donate her kidney to the ailing Kyle
In an interview with the Indianapolis Star, the couple talked about the day they met - September 12, 2009.At the time Kyle was in his last year of high school in Brownsburg, Indiana, and what doctor's believed was his last year of life. He met Chelsea at a car show, when the 22-year-old friend of a friend was going through a divorce. After hanging out with Kyle that day, Chelsea offered him her kidney as they were parting. He didn't think much of it though. Many people had offered him a kidney in the past and he learned not to get his hopes up. Chelsea was different though. She followed through and got tested and it turned out that the two were 'an almost perfect match'.
But it wasn't an easy road to donation. After watching a video of a kidney operation, Chelsea's mother told her not to do it and that caused the mother and daughter to become distant. 'I felt like I had nobody,' Chelsea said. The two went into surgery six months after first meeting, and Kyle drove Chelsea to Indiana University hospital that day. Once at the hospital, Chelsea started to panic. She was going to be the first one operated on, and before being wheeled away into the OR, she grabbed onto Kyle and said 'Please don't let go'.
Meant to be: The kidney donation was a success as the two were a near perfect match, medically and, eventually, romantically
Despite Chelsea's fears, the operation was a success and Kyle's body accepted the new kidney immediately. When they both awoke after the procedure, their first words were about each other. 'Is Kyle OK?' Chelsea asked. 'How's Chelsea?' Kyle said. While recovering the two had to be kept separate so Kyle wouldn't get an infection but he kept asking the nurses to wheel him past Chelsea so he could wave into her room. It wasn't until after the donation that the two became an item. 'There's a bond that no one else, unless they've done it, can know. She's my best friend,' Kyle said.
In addition to other milestones of their relationship, the two now celebrate the anniversary of the kidney transplant, a day they call 'Sparkypalooza' (they named the kidney Sparky). It's become a sort-of inside joke between the two. Chelsea often threatens to take back the kidney. 'He's carrying around my kidney. I have to make sure he takes of that,' Chelsea said.Three years after Chelsea gave Kyle her kidney, the two exchanged vows at the Danville Conservation Club.
At their wedding ceremony on October 12, the couple opted out of the traditional vows of 'in sickness and in health' and wrote something meaningful to them: 'I offer you my hand, my heart and my soul, as I know they will be safe with you.'
